Rice MBAs gain sage advice for crisis management

The surprise. Insufficient information. Start of intense scrutiny. These are the first three stages of a crisis. Your ability to skillfully manage a crisis relies on what you do in the next two stages: escalating flow of events and siege mentality.

Retired V.P. of Bayer Material Science, LLC and LyondellBassell James Newport and former Coast Guard Captain and lead of the Saudi-Aramco Crisis Spill Program Richard Ford joined veteran media executive Jeff Cohen as speakers for the Crisis Management MBA class at Rice University. Each offered sage advice and insights on best practices to graduate students through stories from the front line: a worker strike in Indonesia; an oil spill in the Gulf; local trains going haywire.

Some of the lessons and takeaways are right from the Crisis 101 handbook, which goes to show that in any game, sticking to the fundamentals is a winning strategy.

Top tips from James W. Newport, retired V.P. of Bayer Material Science, LLC and LyondellBassell

The number one thing that determines the success of responding to a crisis is the initial assessment.

Simulations and drills reveal your leaders in a crisis situation.

Predetermine what information you will and will not share with the media including your internal policy regarding benefits, community and media communications.

Crisis management takeaways from Richard Ford, retired Coast Guard captain and former lead of Saudi-Aramco crisis spill program

The big plan will get you through Day 1 of a crisis; from then on, you will have to craft your actions depending on how the crisis unfolds.

The ability to be decisive is a key leadership trait.

As a corporate representative, the media will often portray you in a character role that fits their narrative of the crisis; you need to be aware of this and learn to adapt to it.

The media create narratives to drive their coverage of events; identify these narratives as quickly as possible, and if they run counter to your corporate message and you cannot modify them, then steadfastly stay on point in your message and resist their efforts to force you to go along.

Insufficient Information – In this stage, key people close to the heart of the crisis are still collecting details about what is happening.

Start of Intense Scrutiny – During this phase, reporters want information right away.

Escalating Flow of Events – This is the domino effect or fallout from the crisis. Everything will be important, but will still need to be prioritized.

Siege Mentality – This stage typically impacts the team in the ivory tower rather than on the ground. During this stage, you’ll want to reach out to wise and trusted advisors outside of the organization to get a good read for where you are as a company and evaluate solid courses of action.